Top MTA and Metro-North officials met recently with local media to tout transit successes — and amplify concerns about fare evasion, especially on buses.
MTA CEO and Chair Janno Lieber, NYC Transit Interim President Demetrius Crichlow, Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi and MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara hosted a small group of reporters at the West Farms Bus Depot on Oct. 25 with the goal of making transit leaders accessible and conveying messaging about strong ridership and improved service to customers across the region.
Lieber said that as of Labor Day this year, MTA ridership has rebounded to about 80% of pre-pandemic level on subways and 90% on buses, with similar figures for Long Island Railroad.
But he also delivered some bad news, though perhaps unsurprising, for the Bronx Metro-North project. The long-planned expansion — currently underway to provide connections from Parkchester, Morris Park, Co-op City and Hunts Point into midtown Manhattan and out to Connecticut — will likely not be completed in 2027 as previously expected, said Lieber.
The MTA, which has to work with Amtrak in order to complete the project, has clashed with the national rail service over the execution of the work since the get-go. Lieber reiterated past claims that the project is delayed because Amtrak “won’t let us get any work done.”
Though Lieber could not provide a revised timeline, he said construction is still underway at all four stations but noted that “our contractors have been delayed significantly” due to Amtrak supervision requirements.

‘At the tipping point’
But much of the discussion with reporters dealt with the MTA system as a whole.
Rieara said transit officials still have work to do to better to understand why so many riders evade fares— or, in some cases, avoid public transit altogether.
Fare evasion reportedly cost the MTA $700 million in 2023 alone and has undermined the collective sense that “everybody’s playing by the same rules,” said Lieber.
He said while uniformed and plainclothes enforcement officers have helped reduce subway fare evasion by 20 to 30% in some stations, the same results have not been seen on buses. Lieber said the agency has “lost control” of bus fare evasion.
“We’re at the tipping point, so we have to push back” with increased enforcement, he said.
Lieber said the MTA supports ways to protect low-income New Yorkers, including the city-run Fair Fares program, which provides half-price rides to eligible low-income residents. But the program’s income requirements — which is up to $18,072 for a one-person household — may leave out many who still struggle to pay full price.
Throughout the MTA’s targeted crackdown on fare evasion, “We want to make sure it’s never a crime of poverty,” said Leiber.
Improvements to service and ridership culture also play a role in encouraging New Yorkers to both use public transportation and pay for it, the transit leaders said.
Crichlow pointed to the MTA bus network redesign, completed in the Bronx in 2022 and still in progress in Brooklyn and Queens, which he said improved bus connectivity to other mass transit based on public demand.
“We believe we hit a lot of what people asked for,” Crichlow said of the redesign.
Public safety is another issue affecting ridership and customers’ perceptions. Lieber said that while any level of crime is unacceptable, transit crime is down 12% compared to 2019 and at “historically low levels” on a crimes per day basis.
But while citywide transit crime numbers are down — and are low relative to the millions of daily riders — the Bronx has seen a spike in incidents that has many residents on edge. As of August, the borough saw 218 transit crimes reported to the NYPD, versus 190 in the same period in 2023, according to a News 12 report.
In the MTA’s efforts to better understand riders’ attitudes and habits, Rieara said the agency relies on survey input, including from the fall customer survey, which is available now until Oct. 31 in a number of languages.
But whether jumping the turnstile, slipping onto the bus through the back door or drivers covering their license plates to dodge tolls, “We’re not gonna surrender the city,” Lieber said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes